Posttraumatic stress in children and adolescents: Primary Care intervention

Children and adolescents, because of their greater vulnerability, constitute a group at a high risk of psychological damage after a traumatic event. However adults usually under estimate the violence experienced by children. Children may display a wide range of responses to a traumatic event that are not directly related to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which itself is not even the most common response. PTSD in children has a specific presentation according to age and developmental stage. Paediatricians of the primary care system should play a very active role in the prevention and identification of affected children because of their closeness to children and their families. Specific trainning is needed to achieve this task. A review of this topic as well as the clues for a correct assessment and psychologycal support from Primary Care and community mental health services are showed in this article.